Last-minute holidays

How to search
There are two ways of searching. Either pick your dates and ask the sites to find holidays available, or decide on a location and resort and look that way.

Be aware that many of the late deals cite accommodation allocated on arrival, so while you may get the resort you’re after, it’s generally a case of pot luck as to where the room will be.

Next, be aware of added extras – a cheap initial price may lure the unsuspecting, only to trap them with all kinds of ‘extras’. For instance, we found flights to Luxor at £45 each on On The Beach through Thomas Cook Air, but after two lots of fuel supplement and passenger duty at £65 were added on, along with two charges of £15 for picking up tickets at the airport, the total hit £250.

Likewise, First Choice (www.firstchoice.co.uk) offered seven days for two on a Nile cruise for a penny under £700 – saving £61 on the brochure price. But pre-booking seats together on the plane added another £24 to the price.

One of the advantages of sites such as On The Beach, Expedia (www.expedia.co.uk), Travelocity (www.travelocity.co.uk) and Opodo (www.opodo.co.uk) is that it’s possible to book flights and accommodation separately, which means it’s possible to check out the hotels using the web. Try the Review Centre (www.reviewcentre.com) for holidaymakers’ views on hotels and resorts.

We fancied a bit of luxury, so chose a five-star hotel with a Nile-view room, which brought the total cost of our week-long holiday for two to only £428.08, including a discount of nearly £18 because we booked online. That’s more than a third cheaper than brochure prices.

From our research, we’d say most of these sites come up with very similar deals, so if you find something you fancy, don’t spend too much time checking out similar sites to save a few extra pounds – chances are, you’ll find that a c heaper package offering doesn’t include something such as in-flight meals or transfers, so by the time these are added on, the price will be very similar. For instance, we found our Luxor holiday at www.packyourbags.com at a lower price, but by the time we had added on the extras, it was actually £20 more expensive.

If you have a little more cash to flash, it’s worth checking out the top end of the market, as we found you could make better savings on luxury holidays. For example, at www.lastminute.com a two-week break in a couples’ paradise in the Maldives came to a fiver under £500 each, with everything included – no extra fuel charges, in-flight meal charges or anything.

Get shopping
The secret to getting a good deal at the last minute is to be flexible. Allow a few days’ leeway on departure dates if possible. If you have your heart set on a certain resort, you may well get a good deal and you will be sure of what you’re getting. However, if you’re willing to take a risk on the unknown, you might get an even better deal. And if you take the step up to five stars, you’re more likely to get a real bargain, saving possibly hundreds of pounds.